The present invention relates to an optical disk player having a magazine for storing disks which permits the playing of selected disks from the magazine, and more particularly, to a disk player having a disk reader for reading selected disks which are partially withdrawn from the magazine thereby permitting a compact construction.
Disk players having magazines for storing disks typically provide a selecting apparatus for transporting a selected disk from the magazine and to a disk reader or an ejection position. This type of disk player is referred to herein as a changer-type player because of its ability to exchange disks between a reader and a magazine.
Various types of this kind of changer-type player have been proposed and marketed. An example of such a disk player is disclosed is U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,001. The disclosed disk player provides carriages for holding disks which are transported between ejection, playback, and storage positions, wherein the storage position locates a selected disk positioned within the magazine. The disks are arranged concentrically within the magazine and the magazine moves in a first direction perpendicular to the recorded surfaces of the disks. Disks are transported in a straight line in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, by a disk transport mechanism. Disks in the playback position are completely removed from the magazine by the disk transport mechanism for the purpose of playing. Disks accepted at the ejection position are transported on a carriage held by a moving tray to the playback position where the disks are lifted from the tray and played.
The above design provides for efficiency in operation and offers the advantage of playing a selected disk or a sequence of disks from the magazine without manually handling. However, the locating of the eject, playback, and storage positions in a single plane requires a larger depth dimension then is desirable and interferes with producing a compact design. One alternative is to position the magazine to the side of the playback position instead of in-line with the playback position. This alternative however does not permit efficient design of the transport mechanism because transport from the magazine to the playback position is in a different direction than transport from the playback to the ejection position thereby requiring redundant mechanisms which increase the cost of production. Therefore, other design architectures are sought to further reduce the size of the disk player.